Joe Godwin has posted a nice little article on preaching with passion. He makes this statement concerning the preacher:
Those who come to hear him preach and teach will not remember everything he preaches and teaches. What they will remember is the passion of his heart which will come through in his preaching and teaching.
The passion will be remembered. This shouldn’t surprise us, passionate people are always remembered. The Brett Favre situation shows us this perfectly. It is the passion of Brett Favre that makes him who he is. His passion is for the game of football, and that is evident in everything that he does; that’s why football fans love Brett (and for the record, regardless of what happens with that situation, dont’ bet against Brett).
In preaching, the same thing is true. Your passion will come through in your preaching. So, if you are most passionate about missions, that will bleed through in all of your teaching and preaching, and that wouldn’t be so bad. However, if your passion lies baseball or in a specific theoligical issue (calvinism, premillinialism, arminianism, etc…) then that will come through as well.
None of those things are necessarily bad, but are they really the things that we as preachers should hope to be rememberd for? How much greater is it to know that people will remember you for your passion if your passion is for the gospel? When your passion is in line with the passion of Christ, then your people will be drawn to the gospel you love rather than to a specific issue of controversy. Fall in love with the story of Jesus all over again, and let that love bleed through everything you say and do.
Have a passion for preaching, but first and foremost, have a passion for the gospel. Without it, we have nothing to preach.
